The worst rig you ever had

[burningman]

Having always had older campers for about 30 years, I've dealt with all sorts of screwy old jack types and flexy campers.
I'll start out with the worst truck/camper setup I ever had.
I was a dumb kid with a '67 Chevy 3/4 ton with dual rear wheels bolted on the back with some janky kit. The wheel studs would spin with the lug nuts when you tried to loosen or tighten them. The only way to get the wheels off was to unbolt the axles and slide the whole axle/brake drum/wheel pair out and hold the studs from behind with a socket. Then put it all back on the same way.
I had this old camper, no dually swing-out brackets, and to load or unload I had to remove the rear wheels, then bolt a single wheel back on, drive past the jacks, then repeat the whole process to put the wheels back on. The jacks themselves were made of square tube; you used a portable bottle jack that fit into a tab at the top and had a piece of steel rod welded to the bottom that poked into holes in the jack legs. You jacked it up a few holes, pinned it, then did it again until you got all four jacked up. Same to get it back down. Some of the holes were torn out and you had to be sure to skip them. The good holes were tearing...
It used to take about all day, and that's when I was barely 20 and full of energy.

Oh, and then you could barely drive because the extra dually wheels stuck out of the fenders and had hardly any clearance, and would scrape if you didn't CRAWL around every corner.

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I guess from a "worst rig" RV standpoint, my current popup TC would be it? But I only paid $1000 for it and knew at the beginning that the gas system was fubar'd. Then I discovered that the fridge didn't work on electric, either; so I tore out everything that used propane. Gave me a LOT of storage space....LOL! I have a little portable 12v cooler to keep essentials cold, an electric hot plate to cook with; and an electric heater for cold nights. Works great for us - but surely ranks pretty low on the "RV-amenities" scale 🙂

[JoeChiOhki]

Had two failed attempts before my first camper came home, both while I still had a half-ton.

The first was an 8.5 Foot dynacruiser, which I wanted because my parents had had a 10.5' dynacruiser when I was a kid.

It had dry root, but from what I had seen, it wasn't too bad, that was till I had tried climbing up in the cab-over and my hand went right into the wall board like it was florists foam.

The second was a 9.5' KIT, same truck. Bought that one, got it to a friend's back yard to unload it. Got the loaner truck stuck on the wet grass. Managed to get the camper unloaded and the truck pulled out.

Next day, I come back to the camper, and discover that it was going to be a bigger project that I had originally planned and ended up selling it to the next person in line to recoup my investment.

However, that last camper lead me to my first, which was my old KIT, who now sleeps in the barn, waiting for me to finish swapping parts from him into Ms. Merry to continue its journey, while it rides off into the sunset on someone else's truck.

Pieces of it will be always be with me, the main logo is being embedded into the Amerigo's dinette table, and I'm in the process of purchasing replicas of all the bumper stickers she's got on her back that I can't get off without destroying them.

I'll miss my KIT, but I don't have any place to keep two truck campers.

[dakonthemountai]

Hmm.... Well I suppose it was my first camper/truck. A 1974 Lance and 1974 Ford F350 Supercab. Bought them in 1987. Truck was an old yellow/painted beige school district work beast with 143k miles on it with a 390. 8 1/2' Lance Camper had seen WAY better days and had a LOT of use, but the entire rig was $3,600 and all I could afford, so silly inexperienced me loaded it up and took off on many a trip. Many off road. The shelves in the overhead of the camper collapsed with the first trip. The fridge had to be PERFECTLY level to even get down to a "chill point"... had a porta poty in it, no tanks and one (weak) battery for the lights. but it had an "inside bed" and fridge, stove, and water tank! I felt like I was in pure luxury!! I woke up on a freezing morning in late October at the Kern River to ice daggers hanging from the roof over the bed. On the way home I lost the huge climb out emergency hatch on the freeway... somewhere... Didn't even know until a very upset driver began honking at me and pointing to my roof. Replaced it and learned about venting the camper and using heavy thick sleeping bags... Had many, many wonderful trips in it and finally....... on it's own, sitting up on the leaky hydraulic jacks above a ravine the front driver side (if I remember correctly) jack bracket pulled away from the camper and the whole thing fell over and rolled (sort of ... more like bounced!) down the ravine and that was the end. We used to let the nieces and nephews ride in the camper, even on the bed, but when I saw what the inside looked like after this event I vowed to never let a living thing ride in a camper again! It was a lot of work keeping that old Lance usable, but also a great learning experience and I was hooked on truck campers and have been every since! Worse one?...I suppose, but also one with some of the best old memories! 🙂

Dak

[burningman]

Well that's an entertaining story...

[jimh406]

I haven't had a bad one, but I waited until I could afford a good one before I got one.

[Reddog1]

I am with Boatycall on this one. I have had several TC's since about 1970, all were used and needed work. Always paid cash. Each had their faults. I enjoyed them all.


Wayne

[Boatycall]

I've never had a 'worst' camper, I had what the best was I could afford at the time.

My very first TC was a '77 Caveman, had a wet bath, leaky hydraulic pump jacks, a single dump tank and a cantankerous, fussy furnace.... But it was FAR better than the tent it replaced.